April 2, 2007

The weather finally gave us a short window and we took the opportunity . . . at 10:00 am this morning, we taxi tested the prototype for the first time.  The engine caught on the first try, the Dynon D-180 talked to the engine sensors perfectly, the oil temps and oil pressure came up and stabilized right in the green arcs.  We ran it for a while to watch the numbers, shut it down to look for leaks or drips.  After a few minutes to psych up, we started it up again and taxied up and down the taxi way for a while.  For our own peace of mind we did not taxi with the wings on--you can't hit something with your wings if they aren't there.

The weather is turning bad again for the next few days, so the proto is back in the hangar with all of the cowls and access doors back off for a little post-taxi inspection.  We've got good data from the first run and now we set the stage for more ambitious testing.

We only took a few photos because A) our minds were on the run, not the camera and B) it was very cold.  A few shots are below.  Note: until you properly break in your brake pads, they don't grab as well as you are used to.  Scared the beans out of us at the end of the first run.

June 12, 2007

Today was a big day for us.  We didn't fly but we did something that is perhaps an even bigger trick for a project such as ours--we cooled.

Folks who have watched our program know that it was cold out when we began taxi testing and ground runs.  Even with the cold weather the engine cooling was not perfect and we worked on it as the spring rolled into summer.  Each time we ran the engine the cooling was a little better but the weather on test day always seemed a bit cool, so there was the concern in our minds that the test data was not valid because we weren't seeing summer-type OAT's.

Ah, but today it was 90 F on our little patch of taxiway.  We ran up the engine, got the CHT's nice and high and then pulled the engine back to idle to see if our cooling scheme would do it's thing on a hot day.  Sure enough, as soon as the throttle came back the CHT's started to come down nicely.  This is a big, big, big deal for us, and a huge relief.  If we can get it to cool properly on a hot day, we're looking good.

Speaking of looking good, here are some recent shots of the plane.  The canopy plastic is still on (and will probably stay on until the day we fly) and the body work on the cowl looks like a tropical rash but overall the lines of the plane are looking nice.

July 18, 2007

Yesterday evening the Ion prototype flew for the first time.  This is normally the point where a company launches into a lengthy monologue about what a huge achievement this is and how great everything was and how deliriously happy we all are, etc.

The truth of the matter is that we are more relieved than anything.  Not relief that the plane flew (we knew it would fly) but that it flew before Oshkosh and we don’t have to go to the big show with a non-flying prototype again.  “When will you fly” is about the least popular question to ask a manufacturer.  Now that we have flown it takes a lot of the edge off for us.

Looking to the future, we go to Oshkosh in 3 days.  After Oshkosh we will be taking a vacation . . . perhaps a long one.  Folks can anticipate a short post-Oshkosh update with some photos.  After that we will probably be off the air for a while as we decompress from what we call the Oshkosh Apocalypse.

NOTE: Some folks have reported that they can’t find us at the show.  This is probably because they are looking in the wrong place.  We are located in booth 406 in the North Display Area.  This is NOT the northern part of Aeroshell Square or the north hangars, and is definitely not the North 40 parking area--it is a distinct area of the grounds.

When you are at the show facing the runway, you are looking east.  Turn left (north) and begin walking.  Go past the outdoor classrooms, past the Federal Pavilion and past the NASA hangar.  A good landmark is the Homebuilt Café.  The Homebuilt Café is at the southern extremis of the North Display area.  The northern extremis is Warbirds, the west is the pavilion area and the east is the runway.  We are in the southwestern corner of the area, next to Jabiru on one side, Zenith across the street and the craft tent / hospitality tent on the other side.  Rotec Radial Engines is behind us.

See you soon, and be safe.

August 20, 2007

Back from a post-Oshkosh vacation with a quick update about the show, a few photos and an outline of what the future holds.

First off, the show went very well.  As always, folks were happy to see us and to see, touch and feel the airplane.  This was the first year that we let some people sit in the airplane and folks had a good time with it.

As we spin back up from vacation, the focus is split between flight testing and preparing for the second airplane.  We are using Len Fox as our chief test pilot and Steve M. will do the duty when Len is not required.  Serial 002 will incorporate all of the lessons we learned building 001 and several ideas we have had along the way.

Ion also hosted a group that is working to create a museum to the Flying Tigers.  Visit their site:

The Flying Tigers Heritage Park

December 10, 2007

Ok, ok . . . stop yelling at us.  We don’t update as often as we should and we’re terrible human beings because of it.

Here’s an update.

There are a lot of balls in the air right now, each of which would take an entire essay to explain in any detail.  Part of the juggling act is the process of moving ahead with pre-production stuff while still working on the existing prototype.  Technically you aren’t supposed to do the one until you are done with the other, but we’ve already been in development hell for a long time and we’re trying pretty hard to actually sell some airplanes.

Rather than write a novel, here is a little bullet point list of what we’re doing at the moment:

• Finishing the process of moving the landing gear.  This is a very embarrassing issue that cropped up while the test pilot was here.  Early in the design stage the landing gear mounts were moved from location A to location B, and in the process the axle station also moved.  This screwed up the rotation moment.  As we said, it’s very embarrassing and not something we like to dwell on.  The fix is fairly easy but time consuming and has kept the plane in dry dock for a few weeks.
  

• Preliminary work for a second airplane.  Now that we’ve built the prototype we have a number of ideas we need to implement on future planes.  Some of these ideas are to make the plane lighter or simpler, some are to fix hassles, some are to reduce build time.  The upshot of this is that we need to build a second proto to dial in these ideas.  Traditionally this is called a pre-production prototype; we just call it “number 2.”
  

• A little from column A, a little from column B.  One of the chief things that needs to change from proto 1 to proto 2 is (as you may have guessed from the earlier paragraph) the landing gear.  The gear on the plane at the moment is Van’s RV-6 gear, right off the shelf with almost zero modification.  We liked this because it’s readily available,* fairly cost effective and strong as Holy Hannah.  Which all went right out the window when we realized we had to move the gear back where it was originally supposed to be.  If anyone might be wondering, designing landing gear is much harder than you would think.
  

• Moving into our new hangar.  We worked hard to avoid having to buy a hangar, but in the event we had one essentially donated to us.  It’s insulated and heated which makes all the world of difference in Minnesota (current OAT is 6.5 F).  Aside from the heat, the new hangar also has some perfectly ratty old couches that make the flight test process much more comfortable.
  

• And of course the Ion Weight Witch Hunt continues.  Every part of the plane gets analyzed from scratch with the goal of pulling weight out.  It is quite normal for a proto to be overweight but we are working within the LSA envelope, which makes weight challenging for an airplane of our size (this airplane is physically much larger than any of the other LSA airplanes hitting the market).  We are confident that we will end up with a decent number but of course we have to work to get there.
  

*One of our goals has been to invent as little as possible.  The plane may look somewhat radical but in reality we’ve been working quite hard to avoid inventing the wheel.  Thus we try to use off the shelf components from other airplanes as often as is feasible—their designers are smart folks, and we like to collaborate with other manufacturers or designers when we can.

That’s why the landing gear hassle has been such a pain.  Landing gear is an often overlooked and un-sexy part of an airplane, but it’s obviously a critical system and tricky to optimize.  Using Van’s gear was going to be an excellent way for us to save time and aggravation.  The new gear will be nice and will get the job done, but it means that we had to go back and revisit a system that we were hoping to just source off the shelf.

2007 Archived Updates